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One Nanometer HfO2-Based Ferroelectric Tunnel Junctions on Silicon

Journal Article · · Advanced Electronic Materials

In ferroelectric materials, spontaneous symmetry breaking leads to a switchable electric polarization, which offers significant promise for nonvolatile memories. In particular, ferroelectric tunnel junctions (FTJs) have emerged as a new resistive switching memory which exploits polarization-dependent tunnel current across a thin ferroelectric barrier. This work integrates FTJs with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor-compatible Zr-doped HfO2 (Zr:HfO2) ferroelectric barriers of just 1 nm thickness, grown by atomic layer deposition on silicon. These 1 nm Zr:HfO2 tunnel junctions exhibit large polarization-driven electroresistance (>20 000%), the largest value reported for HfO2-based FTJs. In addition, due to just a 1 nm ferroelectric barrier, these junctions provide large tunneling current (>1 A cm-2) at low read voltage, orders of magnitude larger than reported thicker HfO2-based FTJs. Finally, this proof-of-principle demonstration provides an approach to simultaneously overcome three major drawbacks of prototypical FTJs: a Si-compatible ultrathin ferroelectric, large electroresistance, and large read current for high-speed operation.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; AC02-06CH11357; AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1829205
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1835473
OSTI ID: 1872597
OSTI ID: 1873552
OSTI ID: 1876087
OSTI ID: 1877229
Journal Information:
Advanced Electronic Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Electronic Materials Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 8; ISSN 2199-160X
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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